Apparatus for the charging of cigarette making machines



1.. REPPER 2,157,801

APPARATUS FOR THE CHARGING OF CIGARETTE MAKING MACHINES May 9, 1939.

Filed Oct. 27, 1936 Patented May 9, 1939 UNETED STATES PATENT OFFICE APPARATUS FOR THE CHARGING OF CIGARETTE MAKING MAGHINES Ludwig Repper, Bremen, Germany 1 Claim.

It is known, in the cigarette industry, to effect selective separation or classification of tobacco fibres according to size, by means of sieve-like devices, and it may be, to recombine the classified products subsequently, in some particular way. However, in all devices hitherto provided for this purpose, the steps in question have been associated with other arrangements which preclude absolutely protective handling of the tobacco. My present invention consists in certain improvements upon the subject-matter of an application filed by me upon the 10th day of June 1936 under Serial No. 84,392; with which I have described and claimed an apparatus for charging cigarette making machines with tobacco whereby a fleece is produced from loosened cut tobacco on a running surface leading to the rod-forming trough of a cigarette making machine characterized by one or several hopper spouts and conduits adjoining thereto whereby the lower hopper openings correspond to the width of the upper openings of the conduits and the upper openings of the hoppers are arranged to correspond to the full width of the device which feeds the tobacco, the conduits being inclined obliquely downwards in the direction of the advance of the adjacent running conveyor surface and to which a shaking movement is imparted for delivering the compacted cut tobacco directly on to the said running surface in the form of the desired fleece. The object of the present invention is to extend the basic idea of handling the tobacco as protectively as possible, even to the point where the tobacco is passed from the cutting machine to the cigarette-making machine proper.

Where tobacco loosening apparatus has been employed hitherto, it has been incapable of achieving the object aimed at by the present invention when, in the manner known per se, it has been associated with devices which damage the tobacco, that is to say, rupture or tear the tobacco by means of beater rolls, spiked rolls or the like, which, in consequence of their high speed, subdivide the tobacco.

Hitherto, the object of providing the known shaking sieve for distributing the tobacco on endless bands has been simply to loosen the tobacco, in such a way that the finely subdivided tobacco fibres, coming from the loosening means, had only to be distributed over the moving endless band.

The important feature of the present invention resides in the fact that the shaking sieve is arranged between the point where the tobacco leaves the conveyor belt which delivers it from the cutting machine and the hopper of the compacting conduit into which it falls, all appliances which may injure the tobacco fibres being eliminated, particularly, rapidly running beater rolls, spiked rolls or the like. 5

The tobacco is first distributed, like rain, by the shaking sieve, over the mouth of the hopper of the compacting conduit and in this hopper it de- Scends in the loose state until it enters the compacting conduit itself wherein the formation of a fleece takes place. In this way a tobacco fleece of uniform thickness is obtained irrespective of any irregularities in the motion of the feed belt or of the discharge belt and irrespective of any more or less accidental differences in the quantity of tobacco passing through the shaking sieve. This is what constitutes the advantage compared with an arrangement in which the endless band is located directly beneath the shaking sieve, in which case, irregularities are quite unavoidable. The invention therefore consists in the shaking sieve being disposed at this particular point, between the hopper of the compacting conduit into which the tobacco falls and the point on the conveyor belt at which the tobacco from the cutting machine is thrown off.

The invention is illustrated by the constructional embodiment shown, by way of example, in the accompanying drawing.

At 1 is shown the conveyor belt, carrying the tobacco from the cutting machine and at 2 the shaking sieve the function of which is not to screen or classify the tobacco according to different sizes of fibre but merely to loosen the tobacco. The size of mesh in this sieve is selected accordingly: the meshes should have a clear opening of 15x15 to 30x30 mm.-4, 5 and 6 are the appliances required for the shaking of the sieve; for instance, the members 4 may be leaf springs, pivoted at 5, while 6 is a shaker rod which may be worked in known manner as by a cam disc 50, positively controlled by the machine. 7

From the sieve 2 the tobacco descends like rain into the hopper 3 of the inclined compacting conduit I in which the loose tobacco is compacted uniformly into a fleece which is then removed on the belt 9 running directly adjacent the outlet from the said conduit. Withdrawal of the fleece in coherent form from the outlet of the conduit may be assisted by a slowly revolving fluted roller Iii, preferably running at a peripheral speed equal to the linear speed of the belt 9, which passes on the fleece to the rod-forming trough (not shown).

Whereas, in the known arrangements, the shaking sieve works over devices, such as endless bands,

which carry away the tobacco as it comes from the said sieve, it will be seen that the essential feature of the present invention is that the shaking sieve is located above the hopper of the compacting conduit, so that the tobacco always falls like rain into a device for catching it, which device remains stationary beneath the said sieve. Thus irrespective of irregularities in the action of the shaking sieve or variations in the speed of the endless take-01f belt coming from the cutting machine, the tobacco always attains a definite depth of layer and so forms a fleece of definite thickness before it reaches the belt which carries it away for further treatment. 

